Sorry Robert, I have no hatred for the fire service. But you aren't exactly preaching to the choir here are you? You might only have one leg but here in the land of the legless you are king.
In the world of self employment I have no cushion of a job that is so attractive it has 150 after every vacancy in the UK and which offers a pension beyond the grasp of the majority of this forum. No final salary pension schemes here. No sick pay, no paid holidays either. I believe more die in falls while cleaning windows from ladders than do on active fire fighting service.
If you retire at the low end of your scale (30k) you will get 20K a year on a 40/60 pension plus at age 65/66/67 state pension too.
The vast majority on this forum won't have anything like that as a cushion.
.
Then on top of that comes your window cleaning earnings.
How on earth do you expect folk on here to offer much sympathy?
To get that you would have to start in the service on or before your 20th birthday and make it to 60 , very very few will make 60 on active service.
The ratio of employers to employees contributions is lower than many other jobs , my old private sector pension was 3-1 for instance.
Anybody on this forum could have applied for the fire service but chose to go self employed for the flexibility and the higher h hourly rate you can earn.
I have not asked for sympathy and i didnt start this thread .
What did you earn after expenses last year ?
Everybody on here seems to earn 50-60 k a year , why not put some in a pension or a second property .
Every body makes there own choices .
If nobody ever fought these things we would all still be getting paid a pittance and treated like slaves .